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“I need staff and medical support urgently. I’m asking for retired medical practitioners, nurses and care staff for help. If you’ve volunteered to support the NHS but haven’t yet been put to work, we have vulnerable elderly people here desperate for your support.”

On Wednesday, a spokesman for Liverpool City Council said it had helped to secure agency staff and support had been provided by the infection control team.

Emergency staff were called to the home after its own staff numbers were reduced by sickness, leaving it struggling to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. (Picture: PA)

The council’s director of public health Matthew Ashton said: “One of the key pressure points is care homes.

“Up and down the country, care homes, by their nature, have vulnerable people living in them and they need to be protected.

“We will try and find support in the system for staffing or advice and guidance for their own staff and management.”

Cabinet member for adult social care and health, Councillor Paul Brant added: “The city council has been supporting care homes and home care providers in the city since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We have also been coordinating mutual aid through our NHS commissioners and providers and supporting the sector through planning to meet personal protective equipment requirements, recruiting new staff into the sector, coordinating agency resource, helping with infection control and providing a wide range of advice every day.”